


Portrait

by toasty_coconut



Category: Love Live! School Idol Festival (Video Game), Love Live! School Idol Project, Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-04-19 13:41:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14238501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toasty_coconut/pseuds/toasty_coconut
Summary: Riko presents Chika with a gift that leaves her speechless. That is, until she starts to laugh.





	Portrait

To say that Chika was at a loss for words would be a complete understatement.

“So, what do you think?” Riko asked, a proud smile making its way across her face.

Chika stared down at the sketchbook she held between her hands. She just couldn’t take her eyes off of it. Every detail had been so meticulously crafted into something that she simply couldn’t fathom. She’d never seen something quite like it. It was beyond her ability of comprehension. It was even beyond _words_.

And yet, there were three words that _did_ come to Chika’s mind:

_Why the teeth?_

Chika pressed her lips into a hard line. When Riko told her she had drawn a portrait of her, the last thing Chika had been expecting to see was the monstrosity currently staring back at her. She didn’t know if she should be flattered by the fact that Riko took the time to draw her, or be offended by the fact that someone who claimed to be so artistic saw her like… that.

Her hair was drawn in thin, unfinished lines with bangs that fell all over the place. She had something sticking out of her head that looked less like a cowlick and more like a long alien antenna. Her arms were two stumps of drastically different sizes with no fingers. Her eyes were narrow and wide with dark pupils, resembling that of a dead fish.

But the _teeth_. She couldn’t get past the two rows of small, pointed _teeth_. It made the drawing look less like a human being and more like some kind of terrible lab experiment done on an animal gone wrong. Why did they _look_ like that?

“Well…?” Riko prodded, nudging Chika’s shoulder.

Chika took another moment, hesitating. “I’m just… trying to find the right words…” She technically wasn’t lying. “It’s so…”

But for some reason, the longer Chika stared at the portrait, the funnier it became. Sure, it looked like something she might see in one of her nightmares, but this was _Riko’s_ art she was looking at. All this time she had believed that someone as classy and sophisticated as Riko must have been an incredible artist. After all, she knew Riko loved to draw. And yet, upon finally seeing her work, the result was far less than flattering to the eye.

She couldn’t help it. She hadn’t meant for it to happen. And yet, somehow, she burst into laughter.

Riko’s face heated up at the response. “H-hey!” she exclaimed, snatching the sketchbook from Chika’s hands. “You weren’t supposed to laugh!”

Chika took a second to catch her breath, holding out a hand defensively. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” she breathed, and Riko pouted. “I guess I was just surprised. I mean, it’s just not what I expected.”

Riko averted her gaze as the red dusting on her cheeks brightened. “So you don’t like it…”

Chika paused at Riko’s tone.

Oh no.

Riko had the one look on her face that made her weak. The one where her brows creased sadly into a shallow ‘U’ shape and her bottom lip protruded just the slightest. Nothing good ever came out of that look, so Chika always found herself submitting to it. If she didn’t, she’d become the victim of text messages left on ‘read’ and the passive-aggressive silent treatment for at least two days.

She was backed into a corner now. If she couldn’t find a way to fix this fast, she’d be in trouble.

Chika let out a nervous laugh, waving her hand from side to side. “What? Of course not! I love it!” She rubbed the back of her head with a crooked smile. “In fact, I loved it so much that I just _had_ let it all out and laugh! You know?”

Riko shot her a narrow, skeptical gaze that sent a chill down Chika’s spine and caused her to flinch. “You’re a bad liar.”

“I’m not lying!” Chika lied, only making Riko’s gaze narrow more. “Here, I’ll prove it!” She held out her hands, furrowing her brows seriously. “I wanna keep it. That way, I can hang it up in my room and look at it all the time! I wouldn’t do that if I hated it!”

Riko held the sketchbook closer to her chest, as if protecting it from being berated by Chika any further. But after a moment, she eased up and exhaled. “All right,” she conceded, grasping the page with Chika’s portrait and carefully tearing it away from the confines of the sketchbook. “If you _really_ like it.”

Chika let out a short laugh, taking the paper of horrors from Riko’s hands. “Of course I do.”

She looked down at, what was supposed to be, her own image staring back up at her. That wide smile with all those little fangs caused her bottom lip to quiver. But she bit down on it, holding back her laughter this time.

She’d just figure out what to do with it later. It wasn’t like Riko was _really_ expecting her to hang it up. Maybe she could store it away in her desk, or shove it into her bookshelf, basically putting it wherever it would be unable to haunt her dreams.

She was sure that wouldn’t be a problem.

“So,” Riko said, almost shyly, “you’re really going to hang it up?”

Chika paused, lifting her eyes from the sketch to focus on Riko.

Oh no.

Riko had the one _other_ expression on her face that made her weak. The one where she had a fist pressed to the front of her mouth, trying to hide her blush behind it, while her eyes stared at her with a hint of softness. There was no getting around that look.

She was _really_ backed into a corner now.

As Chika lay in bed that night, she felt as if she was being constantly watched by that wide-eyed, toothy monster hanging on the wall across from her.

\--------------

_End._


End file.
